Fresh off a dominant junior campaign, Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa Aloy was named the SEC Player of the Year by the league's coaches.
The Wailuku, Hawaii, native was also named a Golden Spikes semifinalist on Sunday. He is the first Razorback since Andrew Benintendi in 2015 to be named SEC Player of the Year and the second Razorback to ever win the award.
As a junior, Aloy started all 55 games, hit 18 home runs, 18 doubles, 36 extra-base hits, 58 RBI, and led the SEC with 72 runs scored and 82 base hits. He was named SEC Player of the Week twice this season, and his 18 home runs are tied for the ninth-most in Arkansas baseball history.
Along with Aloy's award, three other Razorbacks were named First Team All-SEC — Aloy, his brother Kuhio Aloy, left fielder Charles Davalan and junior left-handed pitcher Zach Root. Infielder Cam Kozeal was named Second Team All-SEC.
Kuhio Aloy spent most of the season at designated hitter. The BYU transfer sophomore is slashing .345/.429/.607 with 13 home runs and a team-leading 68 RBI, three shy of cracking the program’s single-season top 10 list, through 51 games this year.
Root stepped into the ace role midway through the season and owns a 4.14 ERA with a team-leading 102 strikeouts in 75.2 innings of work. The East Carolina transfer was named SEC Pitcher of the Week twice and has a team-high five quality starts this year.
Davalan, a native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, became one of the best leadoff hitters in the country after he transferred to Arkansas from Florida Gulf Coast. He's slashing .353/.433/.578 with 13 home runs and 54 RBI in 55 games.
Kozeal transferred to Arkansas from Vanderbilt and hit 12 home runs to go along with 55 RBI, which includes an SEC-best 41 RBI against conference foes through 50 games this season.
Arkansas’ four first-team All-SEC selections are its most in program history. It is also the third consecutive season that an Arkansas starting pitcher has earned first-team All-SEC praise, the longest such streak by a team since LSU from 2012-15.
